Mileage Recap – 16 ~ 30 November…Pondering, Goals and Changes

The holiday season is in full swing. I made it back from all my traveling in November and now I’m just trying to catch up by decorating the house and getting ready for the season. I love to decorate for Christmas. I’m one of those….I have so many decorations and I love the warmth it brings to a home during this time of year. But sometimes it just gets a little crazy. Too much stuff, downsizing a bit, and not enough places to put said stuff. So, I’ve been getting rid of some of the things that have seen better days, I no longer want or need. Such a freeing feeling to get rid of stuff.

I love driving and just looking at the countryside. Driving up through California, Oregon and Washington. The United States is a beautiful country. My final leg of travel was driving up to Seattle. My daughter attends college there and this was the first time I got to see her dance in a college atmosphere. It is wonderful to see her grow in her profession and to see the young lady she is becoming. Absolutely magical.

November is the month for feeling grateful. I always smile at this because being grateful is a 365 thing. I am grateful for many things in this life. But it did get me thinking as I was tooling around Seattle. Seattle is a cool place, but there are a lot of homeless and just lost people. There are the homeless and then there were people just out of it. Young people. I feel deeply when I see someone just standing in a catatonic state. People walking by not really caring or dealing. I guess you can’t do much when there is such an over burden. But it does get you thinking about where these people come from, their families if they have them and why they are in this state. So I got to thinking what am I really grateful for…and I would have to say mental clarity and choice. With mental clarity we have the ability to chose the path we want to follow. Such a simple thing, but without it we just are occupying space so-to-speak.

Goals for 2016

My major goal for 2016 is to complete a century ride. I have done some research and found a training plan that I think will serve me well. I have decided this coming year I will focus more on cycling. Looking at what is required for a century there won’t be a lot of time for running. I’m excited and look forward to this new goal.

Changes

If you read this blog and blog on Word Press you know it’s easy to get carried away on the categories. I had way too many categories and it was becoming overwhelming trying to keep up with them. So I’m decided to keep the blog basic. No more months I’m just going to keep everything under the current year. So 2016 will have most of the posts with a standard menu selection for races and such but that’s it and I hope it will keep me sane.

The first part of November was weak for mileage but I was able to finish strong or somewhat strong. While in Seattle I got some good walking miles in…yes I’m counting those. I walked 11 miles one day and 8 the next. Came back and hit the asphalt and was able to pick up some nice rides easing my way back.

I picked up 53.18 the last half of November taking me to a total of 61.29 for the month. This leaves me Thankfully with 8,422.38 remaining. Happy Miles to You!

Good luck with that century. I do several every year. The first was the hardest. I questioned whether I could do it. I was tired at the end, but it wasn’t as difficult as I expected. The key is to put a lot of miles in beforehand.

I love road trips as well. I drove across the US to northern Ontario this year, camping along the way. I put a camera on the dash and took hundreds of photographs. It’s amazing to see how the terrain, weather and traffic changes. What am I going to do with all of those photos? 🙂